IE 5.5 beta available for download

(IDG) -- A beta version of Internet Explorer 5.5 is now available for download from Microsoft.

New to the browser is print preview, a feature Netscape Navigator has had since version 4.0. Print Preview lets you see what a Web page printout will look like, including page breaks.

Some existing features have been reorganized. A new Edit icon on the toolbar lets you edit a copy of the page you have open in either Netscape Composer or Windows Notepad. This consolidates tools that were in earlier IE versions in one place rather than two.

Tighter integration with Microsoft's MSN.com portal is apparent in this version; red MSN and Hotmail icons dot the interface.

IE 5.5 also supports dynamic HTML, which allows for Web pages that change appearance or initiate events in response to user actions. The new version also adds more robust support for cascading style sheets, which gives Web page designers more control over how their pages display.

Microsoft also anticipates more audio and video content being delivered via browsers; it has included support for Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, a proposed markup standard that describes time-based events.